The kid in all of us
Is there a kid inside all of us? Yes! Am I kidding? Well, no.
I was watching a movie together with two friends at home, and when one of them realized we were watching The Lion King 3, he said, 'wait, are you guys serious? That's kid's stuff'. In only 5 minutes he was laughing, we were having fun finding our acquaintances and ourselves in the characters and sincerely enjoying it as purely as children do.
Being childish is frowned upon whenever one is being irresponsible. But is there a reason for the existance of a separate word applicable to responsible people? Yes. But what has this got to do with business? Let's consider some examples.
If you can't be like a kid anymore, you won't be accepted as a teacher for kids. And parents are typically willing to pay well for the best education to what they love most - their little kids. If you can't be a kid anymore, this road is closed for you.
Secondly, learning a language goes fastest for, you guessed it, kids. You'd be surprised what kind of vocabulary you can get from kids movies. Need examples?
"I've bested every black market bid for this chip"
Alistair Krei, Big Hero 6 The Series (which I enjoy!) S1E09 The Impatient Patient
Zazu: Yes, well, as slippery as your mind is, as the king's brother, you should have been first in line!
Scar: I was first in line. Until the little hairball was born
The Lion King
This type of learning is not something anyone can handle, but then again, winning isn't for everybody either.
Apart from movies, let's dip into the fashion industry. When Lady Diana Spencer was getting married in 1981 a wedding dress fashion designer got to work right at the sport as soon as Diana was shown on TV – making similar wedding dresses so that every girl who wanted to look like a princess on her wedding day could get it.
What about YouTube? Bret Copeland's 4 million view video 'How to land the space shuttle from space' video was made in comic-like graphics and parallels that any kid would enjoy.
And speaking of space, what was that driver for the Star Wars franchise? Oh, it was the toy industry! And, no joke, collectable investment toys can be worth thousands of dollars. Check out Bandai's Space Shuttle model or some Iron man collectables. Not to mention the first computer animated movie Toy Story that made Steve Jobs a billionaire. I am personally 'guilty' of paying EUR 1,499 for Bandai's discontinued Space Shuttle Model, delivering it to friends in London, flying there to personally pick it up and bring it home to Moscow because I would have had to pay a 30% customs duty if I hadn't brought it in myself. All because I had been wishing for it like a child for over 5 years. How many people would say it was crazy to do so?
Want some more evidence from the cool guys? Google has a slide at their headquarters and the whole place is fashioned like a playground. The Volkswagen group capitalizes millions on the knowledge that the most successful people secretly play that they're in a fighter jet or spaceship when they ride their supercars. It's noticeable in the Audi R8 Super Bowl Commercial Commander. And to put a Lamborghini Huracan into reverse you pull back a lever like you're in a fighter jet trying to get more altitude at speed. On the Aventador you have a cover around the start button – flip it up and start it like a fighter jet. In the Huracan the cover has a hole in the cover, so you can either press the start button through the cover or flip the cover up, if you're in a more playful mood. The Lamborghini Egoista Concept – a $3 million car, is reminiscent of a fighter jet. And so it was compared to in the official launch movie. The Pregunta Concept ($2.1 million) has a body finished in the same colours as the dissolved Rafael fighter jet.
My point is simple here: there's nothing wrong with being childish as it is not always equivalent to being irresponsible. I associate being childish with creativity, curiosity and being acceptably free of many constraints people generate around themselves when 'growing up' - the attributes of entrapreneurship.
